TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – The crisis at the border has caused plenty of issues for people in the United States and the same goes for wildlife.
The section of the border wall near Hereford stretches 70 miles East toward New Mexico. With wildlife having limited options to get to the other side, wildlife conservationists are trying to change that.
Eamon Harrity drives to the border frequently – to change out batteries and check the wildlife camera they have installed facing the wall.
“These cameras are monitoring wildlife interactions with border infrastructure,” Harrity said.
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What they’ve seen over the last three years is concerning. Small animals like jackrabbits and coyotes have found imperfections in the wall like one opening called the “javelina gap,” but larger animals like deer and black bears aren’t so lucky.
“We have dozens and dozens of videos of them approaching and attempting but just unable to get through,” Harrity said.
Harrity says the last time North American animals had to overcome such a difficult obstacle was with Ice Age glaciers, and it seriously impacts an animal’s ability to find food, water, and other members of their species.
In a statement to 13 News, CBP said:
“CBP works extensively with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, federal land managers and local border patrol stations to identify locations for wildlife crossings, which are place in locations based on known migration corridors. Small and large wildlife passages were incorporated into the border barrier design and installed in locations across the Southwest border.”
A big concern for many is the ability of migrants to also fit through these openings to enter into the country, but Sky Island Alliance argues the risk is worth it.
“This wall is amazing at stopping wildlife, but it’s not very effective at stopping people,” Harrity said, “do we want our grandchildren to grow up in a world where there are no black bears or there are no jaguars in this region in the name of a perceived danger to our culture?”
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